Stethoscope for the brain

A group of researchers from Stanford University, together with experts in the field of electronic music, have developed an algorithm that converts an encephalogram into sound waves and allows you to listen to brain activity like a stethoscope.

Such a tool will help doctors and even students and nurses without special training to assess the patient's condition and identify so–called mute seizures - epileptic seizures without a muscle component.

We are used to the fact that a classic epilepsy attack is accompanied by a characteristic behavior of the patient – he falls to the ground and convulses. But this does not always happen. Cases of silent seizure occur in bedridden, seriously ill and immobilized patients. 90% of their seizures remain undiagnosed. The absence of an established diagnosis and appropriate treatment of epilepsy leads to irreversible brain damage.

Currently, the diagnosis of mute epilepsy takes a lot of effort and time: it is necessary to perform electroencephalography and wait for a transcript from a neurologist. Even in a large hospital, this process takes several hours. If we are talking about a small department in a hospital in a small village, then the diagnosis may take several days.

One of the authors of the study, neurologist, Professor Joseph Parvizi (Josef Parvizi) came up with the idea to convert brain waves into computer-synthesized sound. Experts in the field of electronic music helped to implement it.

To test the potential of the invention for determining epileptic activity, the authors suggested that non-specialists in the field of neurology listen to the transformed brain waves and try to distinguish normal activity from pathological. They collected data from 84 electroencephalograms, 32 of which belonged to patients with epilepsy, and converted them into "music".

This is how the encephalogram "sounds" normally

And so – with a pronounced epileptic attack

(entries from an article in the journal Epilepsia)

Doctors who do not have specialized neurological education and experience in the diagnosis of epilepsy could easily distinguish the moment of an epileptic seizure from normal brain activity – 95% of the answers were correct. This percentage is even more impressive if we take into account the fact that no more than 50% of non-neurologists can "read" an encephalogram.

Now the developers face a number of tasks: they need to put the invention into practice and teach doctors using it the correct tactics for managing patients in case they have mute epilepsy.

Article by J. Parvizi et al. Detecting silent seizures by their sound is published in the journal Epilepsia.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Stanford University: Stanford researchers listen for silent seizures with "brain stethoscope" that turns brain waves into sound.